CAP: ‘Agreement disastrous for Irish farmers and the rural economy’
Pat McCormack, ICMSA President, says farmers will be left carrying the climate change can for EU consumers and corporations because of CAP. Picture: Don Moloney.
‘Farmers will be left carrying the climate change can for both EU consumers and corporations because of reduced payments tied up with additional terms and conditions'.
This is according to the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) whose President Pat McCormack spoke in the aftermath of the agreement reached on CAP post-2020 in Brussels today.
Mr McCormack also pointed out that the current CAP reform had the potential to be “disastrous” for Irish farmers and the rural economy.
“We’re going to discover whether Ireland had the sense to insist on maximum autonomy in terms of overall CAP application, and then we’re going to discover whether Minister McConalogue and his Government are really committed to preserving our family farming sector,” he added.
"The model of convergence is demonstrably flawed and as we’ve said before, it’s not the motive of this model of convergence that we object to; it’s the outcome of this model of convergence, where the weight of payment has switched from farming to landowning.
“That’s fundamentally unfair and it’s deeply unpopular with the active farmers who are the engine of the sector and the sector’s exports.
“That group wants Ireland to secure and use the necessary autonomy to mitigate the worst aspects of the convergence commitment likely in the final agreement.
Speaking about the eco-schemes contained within the new CAP measures, ICMSA’s president highlighted how Irish farmers were now facing a cut of probably 25% in their BPS/Greening payment to fund the schemes.
“Potentially they will be cut another 10-15% to fund frontloading, National Reserves, etc," Mr McCormack continued.
“The blunt and uncomfortable reality is that this will be a disaster for family farms throughout Ireland.
“There is no point in pretending that this CAP was anything other than a serious reverse for Ireland.
“This CAP should have been the occasion for the EU to face up to the systemic problems in the Union’s food supply chain and its impact on the environment.”
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